A young performer from a Cambodian circus troupe displays her suppleness on a table at the Fine ...

A young performer from a Cambodian circus troupe displays her suppleness on a table at the Fine Arts School in Phnom Penh as she trains alongside young students of Cambodia's classical dance tradition. This tradition belongs to an line of court music dating back over a thousand years which was broken with the coming of the autogenocidal Khmer Rouge in 1975 when any artisans or performers were viewed as representatives of the feudal Khmer society they were attempting to purge, and almost 90 percent of Cambodia's dance masters and musicians were systematically executed. Although some master dancers survived, Cambodia's musical traditions were never notated, being passed on through training, and while some styles and movements have been lost forever, the work of ethnomusicologists such as Australian Bill Lobban has ensured that what is known will survive. In 1994, a year after the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) mission departed, the revival of Khmer dance was strong enough to start mounting Ramayana performances, giving many Cambodians their first glimpse of a part of their own heritage.

This colour image was originally reproduced in black and white in 'Shooting at the Moon' and is only available in colour.